I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

How Did An Entire State of rich Australia Lose Power for days, And
What Happens Next? Most of regional South Australia will remain without power
for another day, after a severe storm swept through and plunged the entire
state into darkness on Wednesday.

The power outage was first reported late Wednesday afternoon and as dusk
approached the whole of the state was blanketed in darkness. The local power
operator, SA Power Networks, managed to restore metropolitan Adelaide south to
Naracoorte and Mount Gambier overnight, as well as Port Lincoln. However, major
centres such as Whyalla and Port Augusta will remain without power for today,
at least.

Figures on the SA Power Networks outage
site suggested 100,000 customers would remain without power until 6pm on
Thursday. People in the red shaded area are supplied by damaged transmission
lines – unlikely to have power tomorrow. So how exactly did this happen, and
what does it mean for residents without back-up power sources and major service
providers across the state?

Busted Wind Turbines Give College
Whopping Negative 99.14% Return On Investment. Lake Land College recently
announced plans to tear down broken wind turbines on campus, after the school
got $987,697.20 in taxpayer support for wind power.

The turbines were funded by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Labor, but the turbines lasted for less than four years and were
incredibly costly to maintain. “Since the installation in 2012, the college has
spent $240,000 in parts and labor to maintain the turbines,” Kelly Allee,
Director of Public Relations at Lake Land College, told The Daily Caller News
Foundation.

The college estimates it would take
another $100,000 in repairs to make the turbines function again after one of
them was struck by lightning and likely suffered electrical damage last summer.
School officials’ original estimates found the turbine would save it $44,000 in
electricity annually, far more than the $8,500 they actually generated.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there was a veritable manufacturing and industrial nirvana. Post WWII, its population grew at a phenomenal rate; and so too did the level of prosperity enjoyed by thousands of migrants fleeing to it from war ravaged Europe – cheap and abundant food, decent, affordable housing, motor cars, televisions – all within reach for the first time for this aspiring class of people; it soon became a paradise for the working class: it was called South Australia.

And it got that way through the efforts of a legendary political performer, Sir Tom Playford. In the 1940s, Playford (Premier for 26 years from 1938 to 1965) had a gift in the form of vast untapped reserves of brown coal located at Leigh Creek, about 260 km north of Port Augusta which sits at the top of the Spencer Gulf.

Through Tom’s tireless efforts he coupled that resource with his own creation, the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA), which went on to provide cheap reliable power to almost every home, farm and business in very short order: from 1946 to 1965, the proportion of South Australians connected to electricity increased from 70% to 96%. Central to his efforts to populate and industrialise South Australia was the huge power station at Port Augusta.

News last week that Alinta Energy will shut down the Port Augusta power station (which carries Tom Playford’s name), was greeted by the economics lightweights that write for The Australian (and others) with seemingly jubilant headlines such as “Jobs blown away as turbines kill coal”. We have no doubt that the closure of the Port Augusta power station will have Sir Tom turning in his grave.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Prominent Jordanian Writer Assassinated
by Islamist Extremist. Nahed Hattar was assassinated outside a courtroom where
he was to stand trial for insulting Islam for a cartoon he posted mocking
jihadis.

Prominent Jordanian writer, journalist and left-wing political activist
Nahed Hattar was assassinated outside a courtroom where he was to stand trial for
insulting Islam. Hattar was arrested August 13 for publishing a cartoon on
Facebook that was a sarcastic comment on jihadi fighters.

The cartoon showed a bearded man in
heaven smoking, lying in bed with women and calling on God (who is seen peeking
through the curtains of his tent) to bring him wine and cashews. At the time,
Hattar wrote under the cartoon, “It mocks terrorists and their concept of God
and heaven. It does not infringe God’s divinity in anyway.” He deleted the post
shortly afterwards but was nevertheless arrested.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Obama Admin Wants To Surrender US
Control Over Internet To Global Bureaucracy. The Obama administration is
planning to relinquish American control over a central portion of Internet
governance. The implications of this move range from control by an
international bureaucracy to totalitarian regimes locking up entire portions of
the Internet, according to experts.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is
in the process of transitioning stewardship of the Internet’s domain name
system (DNS) — the technical network that converts website address names into
numbers — to a global entity. The DNS is essentially the “yellow pages” of web
addresses. The transition is set to occur October 1.

DNS control is causing deep
disagreement in the technology world, as experts in the industry and academia
have vastly different opinions on the issue. Some say security and free use of
the Internet is better under the umbrella of an organization that resides in
America, while others assert this power should be given to a global
organization.

Monday, September 19, 2016

A 28-year-old man hunted in connection
with bomb blasts in Manhattan and New Jersey was caught Monday after shooting
two cops in New Jersey, where he had been found snoozing in a bar vestibule,
authorities said.

Afghani native Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth was injured in the Linden
shootout after he struck one cop in his vest and injured another officer when
his bullet smashed a police car’s window, grazing him in the face, officials
said. “We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror,” Mayor Bill
de Blasio said during an afternoon press conference in which he urged New
Yorkers to submit tips by calling 800-577-TIPS.

Rahami — whose fingerprint was found on
an unexploded device — was wanted in connection with the explosion in Chelsea
that left 29 wounded Saturday night and other incidents in the two states that
sparked fears of a local terror cell, according to federal officials. But FBI
Assistant Director William Sweeney said during the press conference that
“there’s no indication there is a cell operating here.”

Saturday, September 17, 2016

China’s Holdings of U.S. Treasuries
Fall to Lowest Since 2013. China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell in July to
the lowest level in more than three years, as the world’s second-largest
economy pares its foreign-exchange reserves to support the yuan.

The biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt had $1.22 trillion in
bonds, notes and bills in July, down $22 billion from the prior month, in the
biggest drop since 2013, according to U.S. Treasury Department data released
Friday in Washington and previous figures compiled by Bloomberg. Saudi Arabia’s
holdings of Treasuries also declined for a sixth straight month, to $96.5
billion.

The figures compare with official
Chinese data showing that the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves were little
changed in July at $3.2 trillion, though they’re down from a peak of close to
$4 trillion in 2014. The reserves dropped $16 billion in August to the lowest
level since 2011.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

DHAKA: Rivers of Blood fill streets as
Muslims celebrate Eid-al-Adha by cutting the throats of fully-conscious
terrified animals, letting them bleed to death in agony. Pouring rains coupled
with this massive and barbaric animal sacrifice ritual on the streets of Dhaka
have flooded many areas of the capital, creating a gory and horrific scene of
red rivers of blood and waste.

Citizens of Dhaka witnessed a horrific sight amidst the celebration of
Eid al-Adha on Tuesday. Rainfall and
animal sacrifices across the city created a dreadful scene of blood streams
across streets in the city. Water logging in many parts of the city got mixed
with the blood following the sacrifices of the animals creating the disturbing
scene. The flooded parts of the city gave an impression akin to rivers of
blood.

Many said the incident showed how the
city corporations had failed to keep the city’s drainage systems functional and
had paid no attention to the matter before Eid. The two city corporations
designated 1,000 spots – 496 in the north and 504 in the south – for cutting
animals’ throats in front of cheering crowds. Areas like Malibagh, Baily Road,
Shantinagar, Bijoynagar, Paltan, Motijheel, Jatrabari, Bakshi Bazar and
Kathalbagan saw people slaughtering animals right in front of their homes.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Australia six weeks from a housing
collapse, US report warns. AUSTRALIA has roughly “six weeks” to prevent a
housing market collapse caused by the banks’ crackdown on foreign investor
lending, a US defence think tank has warned.

In an article titled “Australia Risks Strategic Setback From a
Significant Foreign Direct Investment Drop Due to Changes in Bank Policies”,
the Washington-based International Strategic Studies Association warns that
Australia “may be entering a significant phase of its economic-strategic
development”.

It argues “changes in local banking
policies” could see foreign direct investment in the property sector “decline
markedly”. “This will profoundly impact the Australian government’s ability to
fund major programs in the defence and civil sectors,” it said. The article is
contained in the ISSA’s latest Global Information System newsletter, described
as a “strategic intelligence service for use only by governments”.

Harry Triguboff warns of dangerously
accelerating China crisis. A “VERY significant” number of Chinese buyers are
failing to settle their off-the-plan units and urgent action is needed to
prevent a crisis, Australia’s richest man has warned.

Harry Triguboff, founder of Australia’s biggest apartment builder,
Meriton, says he predicts an increasing number of Chinese buyers will be forced
to forfeit their deposits as local banks pull funding and China cracks down on
capital outflows.

Doctors Have Serious Concern on Hillary’s
Health. Dr. Jane Orient, the executive director of the Association of American
Physicians and Surgeons, and a number of callers who identified themselves as
doctors called into Monday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM to
offer their opinions on Hillary Clinton’s collapse Sunday morning.

Dr. Orient referred to reports that Clinton has a blood clot near her
brain, noting that anti-coagulant medication prevents clots from spreading,
rather than dissolving those which already exist. “Does she have a residual
problem getting blood out of her head, which causes high pressure on your
brain?” Dr. Orient asked.

“It’s not like having a swollen ankle.
Your brain doesn’t really have any room to swell,” Dr. Orient said. “And this
can cause serious problems. So we’re dealing with a lot of episodes that look
strange, that appear to be intermittent and transient, but that could be
related to these old problems, and we just don’t have the type of information
that would allow anyone to come to a conclusion about whether she is
neurologically disabled or not.”

Monday, September 12, 2016

Biryani is a popular South Asian dish
made with rice and meat, fish or vegetables. Though it is rarely made with
beef, it has recently become the target of some Hindu activists in India who
want to protect the holy cow.

A legendary South Asian dish has suddenly found itself in the midst of a
war in India. Made up of layers of meat and rice and cooked with fragrant
spices, the dish is the much-loved biryani. And the latest battlefield is in
the northern Indian state of Haryana.

The police there have been collecting
biryani samples from households and shops in Muslim districts like Mewat, to
check if the meat in the biryani is beef – the consumption of which is anathema
to many Hindus. It's the most recent chapter in an ongoing battle over
religious and caste identities playing out through food in India, sometimes
with dark consequences.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

The early morning of September 11, 2001 in America was late night in Dee Why of Sydney where I had been living for many years since December 1988. In the year of 2001 I was already trading ASX-200 Share Price Index (SPI) at SFE (Sydney Futures Exchange) for nearly three years.

It was a Tuesday and that night I couldn’t sleep early and ending up lying comfy on the couch and watching a TV drama on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) TV. Then just before midnight the TV screen suddenly started displaying “Breaking news: Passenger jet plane crashed into one of the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York City.” at the bottom of the TV screen.

Very soon the regular program was abruptly stopped and the horrific scenes of a large two-turbine-engine Boeing plane entering the North Tower like a hot knife into a block of butter was being repeatedly shown.

9-11: The History-changing Monstrosity committed by the Muslims

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the TV screen for nearly 20 minutes at first. But I soon realized that was not an accidental crash. While ABC the left-wing public-owned TV of Australia was still declaring the incident as a probable accident not a terrorist attack I had no doubt of it as the terrorist attack with no precedence.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Donald Trump Hires David Bossie To
Build Turnout Machine. Donald Trump’s team has hired veteran conservative
organizer, David Bossie, to help build the campaign’s voter-turnout operation.

“A friend of mine for many years.
Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win,” Trump told The Washington
Post. Bossie participated Thursday in strategy sessions at Trump Tower where he
was introduced to campaign aides and Trump associates, according to Trump
campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

Conway said Bossie would be assisting her with managing day-to-day
operations and with strategic planning. “He’s a battle-tested warrior and a
brilliant strategist,” Conway said. “He’s a nuts-and-bolts tactician as well,
who’s going to help us fully integrate our ground game and data operations, and
help with overall strategy as my deputy.”

Bossie will also work on crafting
attacks against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, mining past
controversies involving her and former president Bill Clinton, and cultivating
Trump’s bond with conservative activists.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Thank you, Phoenix. I am so glad to be
back in Arizona, a state that has a very special place in my heart. I love the
people of Arizona and, together, we are going to win the White House in
November. Tonight is not going to be a normal rally speech. Instead, I am going
to deliver a detailed policy address on one of the greatest challenges facing
our country today: immigration.

I have just landed having returned from a very important and special
meeting with the President of Mexico – a man I like and respect very much, and
a man who truly loves his country. Just like I am a man who loves the United
States.

We agreed on the importance of ending
the illegal flow of drugs, cash, guns and people across our border, and to put
the cartels out of business. We also discussed the great contributions of
Mexican-American citizens to our two countries, my love for the people of
Mexico, and the close friendship between our two nations.